Gecko Galz: Moon Child

 

Hello

This month the customer challenge over at the Gecko Galz blog is 

Stay Wild Moon Child..

As always, we also have the monthly card challeng.e, the monthly Christmas Image Challenge, the monthly Stamp Challenge, an ATC challenge, a Steampunk challenge and a Gothic Challenge on the blog, as well as 4 Facebook challenges. These can be accessed by the tabs at the top of the main blog page. We also have the new quarterly challenge.

We hope you can find some time to join in the fun.

The winner of the Customer challenge will get a $25 Gecko Galz Etsy Store voucher and the runner up a $12 voucher. There are plenty of free Gecko Galz images if you don't already own any. Each blog post has a free image to collect and, if you sign up for the monthly newsletter, there is the chance to claim a free collage set each month.  Also if you make any purchase of $2 or more you receive a free image.

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It's my DT day today, so here is what I made: 

Fist up is a shaker card. I used one of the beautiful images from the Stay Wild Moon Child collage set and make a shaker frame by cutting out die frames and adhering them together. I added midnight blue, gold and orange sequins as the shaker element.

The background was finger painted with acrylic paints from PaperArtsy, then splattered with white and gold paint. The flowers and foliage were die cut from painted card.

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Next I made a triple diamond point card.

Here is the stood up view:

 I used another beautiful image from the Stay Wild Moon Child collage set and cut it with a circular die. I matted it on a die cut, white, scalloped circle. I chose paper  from my stash to match the colours in the image. 

Lying down view:

I made die cut flowers and leaves as embellishment:

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I made a very simple notecard, just using the gorgeous image from Stay Wild Moon Child and adding mats in gold and teal.

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An altered spiral bound notebook - my favourite kind! 

First, I coated the kraft, hard backed, cover in Inky Pool acrylic paint. When it was thoroughly dry, I splattered some white paint and added silver embossing powder around the edges. I made an inky background with Distress Oxides. I decided to give this (and the image) a coat of Distress Glaze to seal the surface so it wouldn't  react with any water. The image is from Stay Wild Moon Child. I added some silver metallic looking gems to frame the image and added a moon charm.

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I also made a tri-fold shutter mini book which you can read about HERE.

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That's all for now!

I hope you'll join our 'Stay Wild Moon Child' challenge where the winner will get a $25 shopping spree at the Gecko Galz shop.

The only rule is that you must use at least one Gecko Galz product (this can be one of the freebies or, of course, you can buy at the Etsy store!) Also if you sign up for the Gecko Galz newsletter, you'll be able to claim a free collage sheet each month.

Please pop over to the Gecko Galz blog to see the fabulous designs by the very talented DT.

We also have a friendly Facebook Group where there are 4 monthly challenges, each with a bespoke digital prize. 

Do come and join us!

I'll be back in October with more Gecko Galz projects.

Here's all the info you need:

Gecko Galz blog

Current Gecko Galz Challenge : "Stay Wild Moon Child"

Gecko Galz Etsy Shop

Gecko Galz Facebook group

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Thanks for stopping by today.

xoxo

I'd really love some feedback :)      

I read and appreciate all your comments. 

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Conjurer of Dreams: Let Your Dreams Take Flight

Hello

Today I'm sharing some projects I made using Conjurer of Dreams images. I hope you'll pop over to the store and take a look at the Digital Art on sale for collage, scrapbooks, journals, cards and more.

The theme this month in the Facebook Group and on the new blog is 

'Let Your Dreams Take Flight'.

So, you can make anything that you love or dream about!

I love the autumn season with its changing colours.

I used a die from AALL & Create called Spring Sprouts to cut the Rolodex cards and I bound them into a mini book with discs.

Each page was coloured with Distress Oxide inks applied to an acrylic block, spritze.d with water and stamped onto the die cut cards. I used the colours from the images to create the backgrounds.

The front cover has an aperture. Below you can see that the back side of each of the rolodex cards were left without images to let the lovely coloured ink show.

The cards have some tall pine trees stamped in black (and secondary stamping for added dimension), along with gold embossed branches in the top section and gold embossing all around the card edges of the cards on both the front and back. I echoed the embossed branches in the top corners of the images and edged each image in gold embossing powder too. I love the warm glimmer and shine it gives out.

Here are the images and sentiments on each of the following pages:

  

  

  

The sentiments are Tim Holtz's Idea-ology 'Small Talk' sticker sentiments.

 

Classic Design Challenge Aug/Sept AG 12/09

Crafters Cafe Rainbow Colours & Lots of Layers 12/09

Try it on Tuesday Make it Colourful 16/09

Colorful Options Sept Be Bold 28/09

Archiscraps Sept Lots of Layers 30/09

The Crafting Challenge Sept AG 30/09

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Next, I made a couple of postcards featuring two of the Fall Beauty ladies, which I added to my small journal.

For the backgrounds I placed a Lavinia stencil, called Vine Leaves, on white card and sprinkled Brusho pigments (orange, lemon and brown) over the stencil so that the powder lay in the spaces on the card. Next I spritzed lightly with water to activate the pigments and when the stencil was removed I was left with a beautiful negative image of the creeping vines.

I added the images, matting them onto card coloured with the same pigments, and added a selection of die cut leaves, flowers and a toadstool along with a bunch of small stamen heads.

The sentiments are from the 'Small Talk' Idea-ology sticker book.

 

Ally's Angels #85 AG 10/09

Creatalicious Challenges 280 AG 14/09

My Time to Craft #542 Add Texture 18/09

The Four Seasons Challenge Sept AG Autumn 25/09

Stencil Fun Challenge Sept AG & Fall 28/09

Art Journal Journey Sept AG 30/09

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 For my next project I digitally added the Fall Beauty ladies to the Harvest Moon backgrounds, then I printed the 'new' images out twice in different sizes. I printed different backgrounds also from the Harvest Moon set. and matted the background on black card.

 

 The edges of both the backgrounds and the two digitally created images were heat embossed with gold powder and layered on top of each other with foam tape for dimension. I love how these turned out - the colours are really vibrant and they have a 3-D effect with dimension and texture and shimmer from the gold edging.

  

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #237 AG 14/09

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Finally, I strayed away from the autumn theme and made two masculine cards using 3 Conjurer of Dreams sets, Stained Glass Waves, Stained Glass Lighthouse and Sea Captain.

I love anything to do with the ocean and the beach and these backgrounds are simply amazing!

Again, I digitally added the Sea Captain to the backgrounds and then printed the images out, using a different Stained Glass image as the background. Just simple matting (onto black card) and layering for a stunning effect.

Creative Crafting Uncles #56 AG 14/09

Cardz 4 Guyz #355 Nautical 16/09

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A digital page featuring one of the Autumn Beauty girls and an arch from a custom set Kim made just for me.

And lastly some digital beach and sea themed pages :

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Background: Colourful Beach Huts (available on request)

Woman: Retro Sunbathers

Surf board .png file from Beach Elements (available on request)

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These use the gorgeous Sea Queens set:

That's all for now.

Here are the sets that I used and links to the shop:

Harvest Moon  

Fall Beauty 

Stained Glass Waves

Stained Glass Lighthouse 

Sea Captain

Retro Sunbathers

Sea Queens 

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Please visit the

Conjurer of Dreams Etsy Store

Conjurer of Dreams Inspiration Group on Facebook (freebies available)

Conjurer of Dreams Blog  

A new Anything Goes, monthly challenge will start on 1st October 2024 - open worldwide to all participants, using any digis, stamping, mixed media etc

Please hop over and become a Blog Follower.

Thanks for stopping by today.

xoxo

Path of Positivity: Strength & Courage Frida Mini Book

 

Hello

Welcome back to the Path of Positivity Challenge..

Our challenge is always Anything Goes with an optional theme. We have decided that our overall theme for 2024 will be THE POWER OF WORDS.

September's option is to design a project that is inspired by quotes about Strength and Courage.

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Here is my project:

I chose to make a mini book about Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo. She had polio as a child of 6 years and was bed ridden for 9 months. The disease meant that right leg and foot were much thinner than her left and this lead to her wearing long skirts for the rest of her life.  As a teenager, aged 18, she was in an horrific trolley bus accident which kept her bed ridden for 3 months and in life-long pain. She had over 30 surgeries deal with problems, but her pelvis was smashed and she was unlikely to be able to become a mother. Her pregnancies posed health risks and she suffered miscarriages. She was married to a Mexican mural artist, Diego Riviera, who was a serial womaniser (even with Frida's younger sister). She love him very much, but he hurt her badly.

Despite the drawbacks and pain, Frida showed she had strength and courage and she depicted this through many of her paintings, at one time even considering the career of a medical illustrator.

I made a disc bound mini book about Frida Kahlo using rolodex cards, cut using two die set designed by Janet Klein from AALL & Create.

Here are the pages:

I used images from two collage sets from WendlyLynn's Paper Whims Etsy store, the Frida Kahlo set and Frida Kahlo set 2 which depicts her from a child through to a woman.

I used Frida's well known quotes on each page. These were typed, printed and cut into strips.

I added flowers and butterflies and used pretty floral papers, as these are things that are associated with Frida. She loved animals and nature. 

These are the front and back pages:

  

This following photo shows the dimension on each page, the images were popped on foam pads and the flowers have layers, so the rolodex format was perfect for this project:

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Here are this month's suggested quotes, but you can choose your own:

“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.” — Helen Keller

“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” — Marcus Aurelius

“All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.” — Earl Nightingale

 

“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.” — Steve Maraboli

 

“The sun himself is weak when he first rises, and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on.” — Charles Dickens

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That's all for now.

We would love to see your creations! 

Just make sure that your entry is positive, inspirational, motivational or encouraging in some way!

 The link up is here: Challenge #123 Path of Positivity.

Many thanks to Scribbles Designs for sponsoring the challenge.

I'll be back with a another Path of Positivity project in a couple of weeks time.

Thanks for stopping by today!

xoxo 

I'd like to play along in these challenges:

 

Ally's Angels 85 AG 10/09

Classic Design Challenge Aug/Sept AG 12/09

Crafters Cafe Rainbow Colours & Lots of Layers 12/09

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #237 AG 14/09

Creative Crafting Uncles #56 AG 14/09

Colorful Options Sept Be Bold 28/09

A Place to Start Sept 24 AG 30/09

613.Avenue Create Sept 24 AG 30/09

I read and appreciate all your comments. 

xoxo